What's the big ID? Last night, New York's newest MLS expansion team
New York City FC announced their new badge at the Adidas store in
Manhattan, and it was noteworthy Broadway debut. Over 100,000 votes
were cast online over the course of four days and, for lack of a
better description, the round one won.

It was interesting to look at the photo board and the design team's
iconic choices for Staten Island at the unveiling. There was ferry,
and a post-it note with the word 'water", the Verrazano bridge, the
lighthouse museum among the pictures. Each of the boroughs were boiled down
to what was seen as its essence in a well researched project.

There
is something simple about the final design. Something that you could
have found in your pocket up until a few years ago. A subway token, the cut out pentagon now paired and flanking the central design to represent the five
boroughs. As the designer says in the literature, "The circle is
also a symbol of unity, wholeness and infinity, and is also
associated with potential and the number one. This is a modern and
confident badge that clearly speaks to New York City's status as a
leading city." Those colors of navy blue, orange and white are
from of the City flag. "The font is Gotham', says designer Rafael
Esquer, "inspired by the designers of New York City."

It had begun, he says, as a blank canvas. Along with those photos of the
boroughs, around the room you saw alternate designs, a pigeon, a
lighthouse, each catching an aspect offbeat or iconic, but none as
universal, or as simple as a subway token. To step even further that
what the literature says, it is an idea of motion and connection, a
simple coin that in its way united the five boroughs, a true New York
City currency.

This badge will endure as long as the team takes to the pitch. It
will be the backdrop of every press conference, the head of each
piece of team correspondence, and it will be one of the most
recognized aspect of the team.